Real Money

Is Apple Crying Wolf Again?

Apple has a history of playing down expectations and then blowing them away.

Will Apple's ( AAPL) profits go lame in the current quarter, just like the company says they will? Well, anything can happen. But as we saw in Apple's fourth quarter, reported after yesterday's close, and in countless previous quarters, it has turned the act of talking down Wall Street expectations into a high form of performance art.

Apple, as usual, beat them all, with $1.26. But once again, and this is crucial, it lay its own guidance to waste. Remember? It was only one buck. That's not a beat -- it's a beating.

So when Apple went ahead and talked down the current quarter's numbers, did the business media realize what the company might be up to and allow for the possibility of expectations game-playing?

Some media outlets did let you, the savvy investor, know up front what might be going on. Some buried the possibility way down in the article; maybe you'll find it, maybe you won't. And others did not mention it at all.

The standard-bearers (the only ones you should even pay attention to) included MarketWatch, which in the second sentence made the situation more than clear: "Although earnings topped Wall Street analysts' estimates, Apple kept with its tradition and delivered a first-quarter outlook that fell below analysts' forecasts, potentially setting the company's stock up for a big decline on Wednesday."